I gave up a day job to make a living from online income | Hacker News Reader

I gave up a day job to make a living from online income

kreci.net

44 pointskreci41 comments

  Moreover I have some plans to release some software.
  But I will not tell you more about my ideas for it now
  as someone might do it before me… :-)

That's a big big myth. Ideas are dime a dozen. What matters is execution. Hasn't this been advocated enough already?!

I think it's a much advocated and also much (especially here) misunderstood idea.

It doesn't mean that ideas are valueless - just that their inherent value depends on lots of factors (such as your ability/likelihood to execute it).

Releasing one of your ideas does devalue it (because there are now more people with the idea in mind who may execute it before you).

Or in other words: the execution builds the value of the idea. Spreading the idea may devalue any ultimate execution.

Sharing an idea doesn't really devalue it, it increases its value. Keeping ideas private seems sensible -- in that you gain individually, but it doesn't make sense globally. The situation can be addressed with the economic concepts of 'gains from trade' and 'absolute advantage'. It is better for countries to trade freely because they all gain from the different strengths of each. In a similar way it is better for ideas to be shared: each idea can very likely be implemented differently or better by other people -- from which everyone gains.

There's a difference between 'knowing it doesn't really matter' and 'actually doing it'. I'll tout the 'execution is all that matters' story all day every day, but damned if I'm going to share my ideas without a (commercial or community) reason to do so.

What matters is clients!

First you find clients, then you worry about execution and ideas.

I believe it, but if I'm executing on something, I don't share the idea until it's strategically useful to do so.

"having some plans" and "executing on something" is not the same. I have seen it from my own experience that people tends to see their ideas as unique and much more superior than they are in reality. Until you are actually invested in your ideas and at least 75% (my threshold, YMMV) in to it in terms of execution that idea is worth nothing.

I have few dozen ideas on my personal pad, they are worth nothing.

So then share them all.

There is nothing wrong with holding your ideas close.

i share ideas all the time but people wont make the things i suggest... maybe my ideas suck... but i wish more people would steal them so i could use them.

I'm in a similar position, except I have a few weeks of full-time employment left. Then I leave to pursue some contract work and the rest of my time will be spent working on my startup (a domain specific spreadsheet, more or less).

Anyway, good luck!

I've got reservations about articles and websites that have to do with "making money online", and it's no wonder why. His last day at work is at the end of the month, and he hopes to make a living by work flipping websites, and selling stock photography + software. Why does this have so many upvotes?

In my case, I'm interested because I hope to someday (hopefully soon) follow their path - not exactly the same, but knowing how other people monetize their expertise gives me idea on how to do the same with mine!.

So I hope to learn a bit from each example.

I upvoted because the post intrigues me, and I want to give the post a chance to be seen and discussed before it slides off the bottom of the front page.

I wonder the same. Why I get so many upvotes. But it is great! Thank you all for it and of course I still ask for more :)

Best of luck to you, and if there is anything that I can do to help, always happy to help out a fellow person making money from the internets.

Thanks and thank you for the follow :) I have followed you as well.

Good luck! I congratulate you in taking the first steps. I did back in July of 09, and haven't looked back since. Tighten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride, cause its a roller coster! Perseverance, determination, and a sense of purpouse will allow you to overcome the tough times.

Thanks for your wishes chedigitz! Like for now I am very surprised how popular this post gets. Definitely it is roller coster (with traffic to my blog like for now). Hope to have you onboard when I will describe my experiences :)

Soon I will write my first monthly report number 0

I liked the report 0 part, in true hackish tradition. Wish you luck! Just remember business is like a bicycle, you need to keep pedaling to keep going.

Thanks. I will write a report 0 in the weekend so it would be ready on monday. First day of my "company". Then you will know more exactly what am I standing on... There is more than my "hope" as some people have commented :)

And if you are building some software try to partner with another guy whose has similar interests as that of you.

Don't do it alone it is bit hard.

It depends on what his goals are. I'm not sure hes trying to start up his own company, but maybe just wants a big enough business to support himself.

I want to earn more than in my day job. I believe that small projects can be done by my own (I hire some freelancers). If I will decide for any bigger project I will partner with somebody - especially if he will bring the idea :)

So... are you currently making money from those activities? Or just hoping to? Any advice for the rest of us?

It is already profitable for me. But it was hard to work on it when I was in full time day job as I had not much time. Now I want to scale it to get a solid profit. My only problem till now was lack of time.

In reply to istockphoto money. They require a perfectly made photos. It is hard to get it approved if you have no experience in digital photography. And you must find a profitable niche for your photos to make some serious money.

Is it pretty easy to make money on istockphoto? Or are you very prolific on there to make the money you do?

It's not easy for the average person to just dump snapshots on iStockPhoto and make money. You really need a DSLR to begin with (though I have gotten photos approved and sold that were taken with a Canon S3 IS), good composition, and interesting subjects. You will also likely need to spend some time in Photoshop on most images. So if you're looking at a startup cost, that's a bare minimum of $1k for camera and lens and likely $700 for Photoshop. (You could try free image editors though.) If you're shooting indoors at all, add at least a few more hundred for lights, reflectors, stands, screens, etc.

After all that, there is a lot of competition on the site. Being active in the community there helps a lot. I doubt he got to 13k downloads by just posting photos and waiting for downloads.

His photos look professional, they are linked from his web site. I guess you have to find the right niche, as in other business endeavors.

Thanks. I am doing all my best to make my phots. It cost not only a lot of time in post processing but I have invested a lot in photo equipment and software. But it can pay back if you know what are you doing...

Good luck... you are brave. I didn't realise web site flipping was still big business.

Maybe in Poland(?)

Why downvote me? I was asking if the website flipping is profitable in the Polish internet...since author says he is from Poland.

It is a good business. You just have to find your own path to do it :)

What exactly is website flipping?

From what I understand, it is buying a site, w/ potential, yet poor execution, and selling it for profit.

Buying/selling websites or Making ready website then selling or buying to make profit on it :)

I've also seen it used for new domains - buying the domain putting a [niche-specific] site up and SEOing it then selling it on.

That is what "Building new site and selling it" fits :). Selling website without domain is not a good idea...

rama_vadakattu: I am at the beginning of my career as a software releaser - currently I am better at website flipping and stock photography. But I believe I will partner when my project would be bigger :)

nreece: I am already working on it and it is very close to be released :-) Roridge: Thanks for your support pal!

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